ABORIGINAL   URN-BURIAL    IN   THE 
UNITED    STATES 


CLARENCE  B.    MOORE 

rt 


Reprinted  from  the  AMERICAN  ANTHROPOLOGIST  (N.  s.),  Vol.  6,  No.  5, 
October-December,   1904 


Lancaster,  Pa.,  U.  S.  A. 

The  New  Era  Printing  Company 

1904 


0  7  /. 


[Reprinted  from  the  AMERICAN  ANTHROPOLOGIST,  Vol.  6,  No.  5,  Oct.-Pec.,  1904  J 


ABORIGINAL  URN-BURIAL  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 
BY  CLARENCE  B.  MOORE 

So  little  exploration  of  places  of  aboriginal  burial  has  been  con 
ducted  in  this  country,  compared  with  what  remains  to  be  accom 
plished,  that  nothing  final  can  be  written  as  to  the  methods  and 
extent  of  aboriginal  urn -burial  within  the  limits  of  what  is  now  the 
United  States.  Nevertheless,  certain  data  on  the  subject  may  be  of 
interest  to  some. 

We  shall  take  up  the  record  of  urn-burial,  beginning  with  the 
Pacific  coast,  and  shall  follow  the  custom  eastward. 

Near  Santa  Barbara,  southern  California,  Doctor  Yarrow l  found, 
among  ordinary  inhumations,  urn-burials  in  vessels  of  stone,  some 
of  which,  at  least,  were  with  articles  of  iron,  showing  that  the  cus 
tom  of  urn-burial  in  this  region  extended  into  post-Columbian 
times.2 

The  form  of  urn-burial  varied.  Doctor  Yarrow  describes, 
among  other  instances,  the  finding  of  an  olla  with  parts  of  the  cra 
nium  of  a  child ;  a  large  olla  containing  bones  and  covered  on  top 
with  the  epiphysis  of  a  vertebra  of  a  whale ;  a  large  steatite  olla 
containing  the  skeleton  of  an  infant,  wrapped  in  matting ;  an  olla 
containing  a  skull  (particulars  not  given)  ;  a  mortar  covered  by  the 
shoulder-blade  of  a  whale,  containing  the  skull  of  an  infant,  covered 
by  an  abalone  shell ;  an  olla  containing  the  bones  of  a  child.  In 
addition,  we  find  a  custom  where  skulls,  accompanied  by  their  skel- 


1  United  States  Geographical  Surveys  West  of  looth  Meridian,  vol.  vn,  "Archae 
ology,"  edited  by  Prof.  F.  W.  Putnam,  p.  35  et  seq. 

2  Baron  Erland  Nordenskiold,  speaking  of  very  recent  urn-burials  in  South  Amer 
ica,  says  :   "They  bury  their  dead  in  giant  pots,  as  is  usual  with  the  Guarani  people. 
These  pots  they  bury  in  a  corner  of  the  rancho,  which  —  at  any  rate,  on  the  death  of  a 
master  of  the  house  —  is  set  on  fire.     This  manner  of  burial  will,  of  course,  soon  disappear. 
I  have  myself  dug  up  a  double  pot  containing  a  skeleton,  which  it  was  stated  had  been 
buried  in  1899.     It  cannot  have  been  much  longer  ago,  since  in  the  spring  of  1902  there 
was  a  perceptible  smell."-—  Travels  on  the  Boundaries  of  Bolivia  and  Argentina, 
Geographical  Journal,  May,  1903. 

660 

2960  71 


66 1  AMERICAN  ANTHROPOLOGIST  [N.  s.,  6,  1904 


etohs,  we're- covered  by  large  stone  mortars,  orifices  down.  In  one 
*in$ttmee;e  skull  was  covered  by  a  copper  (brass  ?)  pan,1  inverted. 

The  placing  of  inverted  mortars  of  stone  over  skulls  accom 
panied  by  their  skeletons  is  closely  related  to  a  custom  we  shall 
refer  to  later,  as  practised  in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico. 

At  Forestdale,  eastern  Arizona,  among  other  burials,  Hough  2 
found  cremated  remains  in  gray  vases,  not  of  stone,  as  in  lower  Cal 
ifornia,  but  of  earthenware,  as  are  all  vessels  subsequently  treated 
of  in  this  paper,  "  which  were  luted  with  clay,  stopped  with  a  stone, 
or  covered  with  an  upturned  bowl."  "  A  remarkable  fact  connected 
with  the  interments  of  this  class,"  says  Dr  Hough,  "is  that  the 
vases  are  usually  set  on  the  bones  of  an  infant.  No  explanation 
derived  from  historical  or  present  observances  of  any  of  the  Pueblo 
tribes  can  be  given  of  this  strange  custom,  which  appears  to  have 
been  of  sacrificial  character." 

The  Hemenway  Expedition,  under  Gushing,  found,  near  Phoenix, 
Arizona,  burial-urns  used  as  receptacles  for  cremated  human  re 
mains.3  Certain  of  these  vessels,  which  are  now  in  the  Peabody 
Museum,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  had  each  a  small  bowl,  inverted,  for  a 
cover. 

Near  Solomonsville,  southeastern  Arizona,  Fewkes4  found  jff 
urn-burial  of  cremated  human  remains. 

Doctor  Fewkes  says  :  "  Evidences  of  cremation  were  common, 
consisting  of  calcined  human  bones  in  mortuary  ollas,  with  ashes, 
evidently  of  bones,  buried  on  certain  low  mounds  adjoining  the 
houses.  It  was  apparently  the  ancient  custom  to  burn  the  dead  on 
certain  pyral  mounds  and  then  to  gather  up  the  remains  of  the  burnt 
bones  and  deposit  them  in  small,  rudely  decorated  vases.  A  circu 
lar  disc,  made  of  pottery,  was  luted  to  the  orifice  of  these  vases  and 

1  I  am  indebted  to  Mr  C.  C.  Willoughby  for  the  information  that  a  skeleton  now  in 
the  Peabody  Academy  of  Science,  Salem,  Mass.,  was  found  in  Essex  county,  Mass.,  with 
the  skull  placed  in  a  brass  kettle.     The  kettle,  however,  lay  on  its  side,  and  was  not  over 
the  skull,  mouth  down. 

2  Report  of  the  U.  S.  National  Museum,  1901,  p.  292. 

3  Compte  Rendu  of  the  Seventh  Session  of  the  International  Congress  of  American 
ists,  Berlin,  1889,  published  1890.     See  also  Matthews  in  Memoirs  Nat.  Acad.  of  Sci 
ences,  vol.  vi,  Seventh  Memoir,  pp.  149-150. 

4  Two  Summers'    Work  in  Pueblo  Ruins,  by  Jesse  Walter   Fewkes,  22d    Report 
Bur.  Amer.  Eth.,  part  I,  pp.  171,  175  et  seq. 


MOORE]  URN-BURIAL    IN  THE    UNITED   STA'IES  662 

the  whole  was  buried  in  an  upright  position  near  the  edge  of  the 
mound  upon  which  the  burning  took  place." 

I  am  unable,  in  this  hastily  prepared  paper,  to  give  satisfactory 
reference  to  any  instance  of  urn-burial  of  cremated  remains  in  New 
Mexico,  though  one  might,  with  reason,  expect  evidence  of  the 
custom  there.  The  instance  cited  in  a  certain  book  intended  for 
popular  reading,  and  by  Doctor  Yarrow,1  are  unsatisfactory. 

Another  form  of  what  possibly  might  be  called  urn-burial,  recall 
ing  the  use  of  inverted  mortars  on  the  Pacific  slope,  obtained  in 
southwestern  United  States,  namely,  the  placing  of  an  inverted  bowl; 
over  a  skull.  The  skull,  however,  was  present  with  its  skeleton  and 
was  not  buried  alone,  apart  from  the  skeleton,  under  a  mortuary 
bowl,  as  we  shall  see  was  the  case  in  northwestern  Florida. 

This  custom,  in  the  Southwest,  of  placing  bowls  over  skulls 
which  were  with  their  skeletons,  was  not  general  even  when  prac 
tised,  the  placing  of  the  bowl  over  a  skull  being  occasional  only. 
Gushing  and  Hodge2  noted  this  custom  near  Phoenix,  Arizona,  as 
did  Fewkes  3  in  one  instance  at  Sikyatki  in  northeastern  Arizona. 

Professor  Duff  has  described  the  occurrence  of  the  same  custom 
in  the  Mimbres  valley,  southwestern  New  Mexico,4  and  Prof.  Edgar 
L.  Hewett 5  noted  that  the  same  custom  prevailed  in  cemeteries  in 
the  Pajarito  Park  country,  northwest  of  Santa  Fe. 

What  might  be  called  a  collateral  branch  of  urn-burial  is  de 
scribed  and  figured  by  Pepper6  as  occurring  in  southeastern  Utahr 
where  circular  baskets  were  found  laid  over  burials. 

Continuing  eastward,  we  note  that  urn-burial  was  practised  occa 
sionally  in  Mississippi  —  at  least,  C.  C.  Jones  makes  a  general  state 
ment  to  that  effect.7 

1  Doctor  Yarrow  (First  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Eth.,  1879-80,  p.  137  et  seq. )  quotes  E.  A. 
Barber  (Amer.  Nat.,  1876,  vol.  x,  p.  455  et  seq.)  as  authority  for  the  discovery  of  burial- 
urns  in  New  Mexico.      In  point  of  fact,  Doctor  Barber,  in  his  Ancient  Pottery  of  Colo 
rado,  Utah,  Arizona,  and  New  Mexico,  describes  the  pottery  of  that  entire  region  in  a 
general  way,  and  nowhere  refers  to  the  finding  of  burial-urns  in  New  Mexico. 

2  F.  W.  Hodge,  in  private  letter. 

3  Seventeenth  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.,  part  II,  p.  654. 

4  American  Antiquarian,  Sept.-Oct.,  1902. 

5  F.  W.  Hodge,  in  private  letter. 

6  Journ.  Am.  Mus.  of  Natural  History,  vol.  II,  no.   4,  Guide  Leaflet  No.  6,  New 
York,  1902.     Also  referred  to  in  Mason's  Aboriginal  American  Basketry  ;  Report  U.  S. 
Nat.  Museum,  1902. 

"  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians,  p.  456. 


663  AMERICAN  ANTHROPOLOGIST  [N.  s.,  6,  1904 

Proceeding  northward  into  Tennessee,  we  find  recorded  l  an 
interesting  urn-burial  from  Hale's  Point,  consisting  of  a  heavy  casket 
of  earthenware  in  two  irregular,  quadrangular  parts  made  in  a  way 
that  the  sides  of  one  come  down  a  short  distance  below  the  top  of 
the  other.  "  This  is  one  of  the  very  few  vessels,"  says  Professor 
Holmes,  speaking  of  the  United  States,  "  that  would  seem  to  have 
been  constructed  especially  for  mortuary  purposes."  Within  the 
casket  were  the  decaying  bones  of  a  very  small  child. 

In  a  mound  in  Roane  county,  Tenn.,  it  is  said2  that  an  adult 
skeleton  lay  in  a  boat-shaped  vessel  of  soft  clay,  nine  feet  long. 

Mr  William  McAdams 3  tells  of  mounds  in  Calhoun  county, 
Illinois,  where  partly  burned  human  bones  and  ashes  lay  in  large 
sea-shells,  and,  in  two  instances,  in  shells  of  turtles. 

Mr  Henry  Gillman  4  gives  exact  details  of  what  he  considered 
a  unique  discovery  at  that  time,  being  cremated  human  remains 
found  in  an  urn,  in  a  mound  near  Fort  Wayne,  Mich. 

From  the  Andross  village  site,  near  Saginaw,  Mich.,  Mr  Harlan  I. 
Smith 5  reports  the  finding  of  a  vessel  3  feet  9  inches  in  circumfer 
ence,  and  about  2  feet  in  height,  before  it  was  broken,  under  the 
following  conditions  :  "  While  a  pioneer  was  plowing  on  the 
site,  the  foot  of  one  of  his  oxen  suddenly  sank  into  a  hole.  On 
investigation  the  farmer  found  that  the  ox  had  broken  through  the 
bottom  of  an  urn  which  had  been  turned  mouth  downward  over  the 
head  of  a  human  skeleton.  .  .  It  is  reported  that  a  number  of  simi 
lar  urns  have  been  found  near  Detroit,  and  one  was  dug  up  at  Point 
Lookout,  on  the  west  side  of  Saginaw  Bay  ;  but  unfortunately  all 
these  specimens  have  been  broken  or  lost,  so  that  the  Andross  urn 
is  probably  unique." 

In  this  case  we  note  that  the  details  of  the  discovery  are  based 
on  hearsay  testimony.5 

1  W.  H.  Holmes,  Ancient  Pottery  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  Fourth  Ann.  Rep.  Bur. 
Eth.,  1882-83,  p.  381. 

2  Cyrus   Thomas,  Report  on   Mound  Explorations   of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology, 
Twelfth  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Ethnology,  p.  359  et  seq. 

3 Proc.  A.  A,  A.  S.,  1880,  p.  712  et  seq. 
*>Proc.  A.  A.  A.  S.,  1876,  p.  315. 

5  The  Saginaw  Valley  Collection,  Supplement  to  American  Museum  Journal,  vol.  I, 
No.  12,  Nov.-Dec.,  1901,  p.  21. 

6  See  also  American  Antiquarian,  1879,  p.  164,  as  to  urn-burial  in  Michigan. 


MOORE]  URN-BURIAL   IN   THE    UNITED   STATES  664 

Returning  now  to  the  Gulf  coast,  the  Mobile  and  the  Alabama 
rivers,  Alabama,  were  investigated  by  me.1 

Going  northward,  in  the  mound  on  Little  river  were  two  burials 
of  unburnt  bones  of  infants,  each  in  a  vessel,  which,  to  judge  by 
fragments  around,  had  been  surmounted  by  another  vessel. 

At  Matthew's  landing,  among  many  ordinary  inhumations,  was 
a  single  urn -burial,  being  a  large  vessel  covered  by  an  inverted 
platter.  Within  were  the  uncremated  bones  of  a  number  of  infants, 
carefully  stowed  away.  Here  we  are  introduced  to  a  new  feature  in 
urn-burial  in  the  United  States,  namely,  plural  uncremated  burials 
in  a  single  urn. 

In  the  famous  cemetery  at  Durand's  Bend,  above  Selma,  were 
numerous  great  vessels,  many  covered  by  shallow  bowls  inverted  ; 
some,  by  large  but  imperfect  vessels  in  a  reversed  position.  Most 
of  these  vessels  held  single  skeletons  of  infants,  very  badly  decayed, 
but  in  one  instance,  at  least,  parts  of  the  skeletons  of  two  infants 
were  present. 

There  were  also  two  great  vessels,  each  enclosing  parts  of  a 
skeleton  of  an  adult,  without  the  skull.  As  the  bones  barely  cov 
ered  the  bottoms  of  the  vessels,  lack  of  room  cannot  have  been  the 
motive  for  a  partial  deposit. 

In  one  striking  instance,  two  skeletons,  one  of  an  adult,  the 
other  of  an  adolescent,  had  been  carefully  packed  away  in  one 
receptacle.  On  top,  side  by  side,  lay  the  skulls. 

In  all  directions  in  the  cemetery  at  Durand's  Bend  were  unen 
closed  inhumations  of  the  usual  character. 

Explorations  made  by  me  on  the  boundary  between  Alabama 
and  Florida,  and  eastward  along  the  northwest  coast  of  Florida,2 
yielded  numerous  bowls  of  large  size,  inverted  over  lone  skulls  or 
skulls  accompanied  by  a  few  scattered  bones.  In  two  cases  only, 
on  the  Florida  coast,  was  the  regular  form  of  enclosed  urn-burial 
met  with  :  once  where  a  great  bowl,  capped  by  a  large  inverted 


1  Certain    Aboriginal  Remains   of  the   Alabama    River,  by  Clarence    B.   Moore  ; 
Journ.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci.,  Phila.,  vol.  xi.      See  also  Shell  Heaps  on  Mobile  River,   Smith 
sonian  Report,  1878,  pp.  290,  291. 

2  Certain   Aboriginal  Remains  of  the  Northwest  Florida    Coast,  parts  I  and  II,  by 
C    B.  Moore  ;  Journ.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci.,  Phila.,  vols.  XI  and  XII. 


665  AMERICAN  ANTHROPOLOGIST  [N.  s.,  6,  1904 

fragment  of  another  vessel,  held  the  decaying  parts  of  a  skull  and 
certain  other  bones.  Again,  at  Ocklockonee  bay,  the  easternmost 
limit  of  urn-burial  in  Florida,  none  having  been  noted  in  the  pen 
insular  part  of  the  state,  I  found  a  single  urn-burial,  containing  the 
bones  of  a  child,  in  a  deep  bowl  surmounted  by  another  bowl 
inverted.  With  the  bones  were  two  bracelets  of  brass.  Farther  to 
the  westward,  also,  on  the  Alabama  line,  I  found  evidence  of  con 
tact  with  Europeans,  with  certain  burials  covered  by  inverted  bowls. 
We  see,  then,  that  in  southeastern  United  States  also,  urn-burial 
survived  into  the  historic  period. 

For  further  examples  of  urn-burial  in  the  United  States,  we 
must  go  to  the  Altamaha  river,1  in  Georgia,  to  points  along  the 
mainland  of  the  Georgia  coast,  and  to  the  sea-islands  which  border 
that  coast.2 

In  Alabama,  and  along  the  northwest  Florida  coast,  cremated 
remains  in  urns  were  not  found  by  me.  On  the  Altamaha  river, 
however,  I  found  pots  containing  quantities  of  fragments  of  charred 
and  calcined  human  bones.  These  pots  were  covered  wholly  or  in 
part  by  other  pots  inverted  over  them.  In  one  instance,  a  great 
pot  of  yellow  ware,  decorated  all  over  with  a  modification  of  the 
swastika,  stamped  on  the  clay  when  soft  (stamped  decoration  being 
characteristic  of  south  Appalachian  ware),  lay  inverted  over  a  great 
unenclosed  mass  of  partly-cremated  fragments  of  human  bones, 
among  which  were  tobacco  pipes  and  pearls. 

Also  along  the  Altamaha  were  pots,  each  turned  over  uncre- 
mated  bones  of  an  infant,  lying  on  the  sand,  without  enclosing 
vessel. 

Along  the  mainland  of  the  Georgia  coast  I  met  with  vessels  in 
verted  over  piles  of  charred  and  calcined  bones ;  and  cremated 
remains  in  urns,  some  of  which  were  covered  by  surmounting  ves 
sels,  some  by  fragments  of  pottery.  Here  again,  as  in  all  other 


1  Certain  Aboriginal  Mounds  of  the  Altamaha  River,  by  C.  B.  Moore  ;  Journ.  Acad. 
Nat.    Sci.,  Phila.,  vol.  XI.      See  also  A    Primitive    Urn-burial,  by  Dr  J.    F.    Snyder, 
Smithsonian  Report,  1890,  p.   609.     Also  notice  of  an  urn-burial  from  Oconee  river,  a 
tributary  of  the  Altamaha,  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Eth.,  1879-80,  p.  138  and  figure. 

2  Certain  Aboriginal  Mounds  of  the  Georgia   Coast,  by  C.  B.  Moore  ;  lourn.  Acad. 
Nat.  Sci.,  Phila.,  vol.  XL      See  also  C.  C.  Jones,  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians 
p.  454  et  seq. 


AMERICAN    ANTHROPOLOGIST 


N.   S.  VOL.   6,    FL.    XXV 


URN-BURIAL   FROM   A   MOUND  ON   ST  CATHARINE'S   ISLAND,   GEORGIA.      (ABOUT  ONE-THIRD  SIZE) 


MOORE]  URN-BURIAL   IN   THE    UNITED   STATES  666 

•examples  of  urn-burial  with  which  I  have  had  to  do,  the  urns  were 
among  unenclosed  burials,  and  never  in  mounds  or  cemeteries  by 
themselves. 

Among  the  sea-islands  of  Georgia  the  form  of  burial  placed  in 
the  urns  seems  to  have  varied. 

On  Creighton  island  were  jars,  capped  by  inverted  vessels,  con 
taining  unburnt  skeletons  of  infants,  single  skeletons  presumably. 

On  Sapelo  island,1  in  the  principal  mound,  were  uncremated 
single  skeletons  and  parts  of  skeletons,  of  adults,  in  urns.  In  a 
smaller  mound,  not  far  distant,  the  urns  contained,  each,  the  un 
cremated  remains  of  an  infant,  with  one  interesting  exception.  A 
burial  in  an  oblong  vessel,  covered  with  fragments  of  pottery,  con 
sisted  of  part  of  a  skeleton  of  a  woman,  which  completely  filled  the 
vessel.  Below,  in  the  sand,  were  many  other  bones  belonging  to 
the  same  skeleton. 

On  this  island  the  vessels  were  variously  covered,  some  by 
other  vessels,  some  by  sherds,  some  by  decaying  slabs  of  wood. 

The  urn-burials  of  St  Catharine's  island  yielded  uncremated 
remains,  belonging  to  adults  in  all  cases  but  one,  where  bones  of 
an  infant  were  present.  Certain  urns  were  covered  by  other  vessels 
inverted  ;  some  were  unprotected,  as  is  shown  by  the  accompany 
ing  illustration  (plate  xxvm). 

Ossabaw  island,  rich  in  archeological  remains,  yielded  uncre 
mated  bones  of  infants,  in  urns,2  while  other  urns  contained  cre 
mated  remains,  usually  of  adults.  Some  enclosing  urns  were 
capped  by  other  vessels,  some  by  sherds,  while  some  were  without 
covering. 

In  my  mound  work  along  the  southern  part  of  the  coast  of 
South  Carolina 3  and  its  outlying  sea-islands  no  instance  of  urn- 
burial  was  discovered  in  situ  by  me.  I  was  shown  there  a  vessel, 


1  In  summing  up  results  in  my  report  on  the  Georgia  coast,  unfortunately  I  have 
erroneously  said  that  bones  of  adults  only  were  found  in  urn-burials  on  Sapelo  island. 
Fortunately  the  records  in  my  report  are  full  and  correct. 

2  In  addition  to  my  report  on  the  mounds  of  the  Georgia  coast,  see  Aboriginal  Pot 
tery  of  Eastern  United  States,  by  W.  H.  Holmes  ;  Twentieth  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth., 
P-  136. 

3  Certain  Aboriginal  Mounds  of  the  Coast  of  South  Carolina  ;  Jour.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci., 
Phila.,  vol.  XI. 


667  AMERICAN  ANTHROPOLOGIST  [N.  s.,  6,  1904 

said  to  have  been  found  in  level  ground  near  the  South  Carolina 
coast,  similar  to  those  used  for  burial  along  the  coast  of  Georgia, 
in  which  a  thoroughly  reliable  person  said  he  had  found  human 
remains.  Such  evidence,  however,  is  far  from  final. 

C.  C.  Jones  says,  in  a  general  way,  that  urn-burial  was  prac 
tised  in  South  Carolina,  but  he,  perhaps,  like  Foster,1  got  his  infor 
mation  from  a  loose  statement  made  by  Squier  and  Davis.2  Never 
theless,  it  is  likely  that  urn-burial  obtained  to  a  certain  extent  in 
South  Carolina,  as  that  region  is  contiguous  to  Georgia,  where  we 
know  the  custom  prevailed. 

This  list  of  forms  of  urn-burial  and  of  localities  in  which  the 
custom  was  practised  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  will  be 
increased,  no  doubt,  by  additional  references  brought  forward  by 
others  and  by  the  results  of  further  investigation. 

So  far  as  this  record  goes,  however,  we  note  that  urn-burial 
occasionally  was  practised  in  the  southern  part  of  the  United  States, 
from  ocean  to  ocean,  though  as  yet  a  continuous  line  of  occurrence 
has  not  been  traced.  Urn-burial  seems  to  have  been  almost 
unknown  in  the  north.3  Perhaps  the  much  greater  use  of  pottery 

1  Prehistoric  Races,  p.  199. 

14  Squier  and  Davis,  Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  p.  167,  say: 
"  In  the  mounds  on  the  Wateree  river  near  Camden,  South  Carolina,  ranges  of  vases, 
filled  with  human  remains  were  discovered."  On  p.  108  of  the  same  work  is  a  detailed 
description.  In  one  mound,  which  was  two-thirds  washed  away  by  the  river,  Dr  Bland- 
ing,  according  to  his  account  which  is  given,  saw  "  layers  of  earth,  pottery,  charred  reeds, 
etc.  Some  few  of  the  vases  were  entire,  containing  fragments  of  bones  and  were  well 
arranged  in  tiers,  one  above  the  other."  Old-time  statements  must  be  taken  with  con 
siderable  allowance.  Moreover,  even  Dr  Blanding  does  not  speak  of  the  urns  as  having 
been  used  for  burial  purposes.  Fragments  of  bones  often  fall  into  vases  which  have  been 
placed  in  the  neighborhood  of  skeletons. 

3  Doctor  Yarrow,  in  Mortuary  Customs  of  North  American  Indians  ( Ann.  Rep.  Bur. 
Eth.,  1879-80),  in  the  part  devoted  to  urn-burial,  page  137  et  seq.,  figures  four  vessels, 
three  from  Indiana,  one  from  Kentucky,  which  he  says  are  taken  from  Foster's  Prehis 
toric  Races,  and  describes  them  as  "burial  urns."  In  point  of  fact,  Foster  makes  no  as 
sertion  that  these  urns  were  used  to  contain  human  remains,  but  describes  the  three  from 
Indiana  (pp.  144  and  247)  as  "sepulchral  urns"  found  "filled  with  black  mould." 
The  diameter  of  the  largest  vessel  is  about  6  inches  !  The  vessel  from  Kentucky  is 
equally  small  and  is  given  by  Foster  (p.  248)  as  coming  "from  an  ancient  grave." 

Foster  (op.  cit.  p.  200)  says  :  "  Professor  Swallow  informs  me  that  from  a  mound  at 
New  Madrid,  Missouri,  he  obtained  a  human  skull,  enclosed  in  an  earthern  jar,  the  lips 
of  which  were  too  small  to  admit  of  its  extraction  ;  it  must,  therefore,  have  been  moulded 
on  the  head  after  death."  The  Eighth  Annual  Report  of  the  Peabody  Museum  gives 


MOORE]  URN-BURIAL   IN  THE    UNITED   STATES  668 

in  the  south  than  in  the  north  may  account  for  this  in  part,  though 
under  this  hypothesis  one  might  look  for  urn-burials  in  Missouri, 
Arkansas,  and  neighboring  states. 

The  placing  of  cremated  remains  in  urns  seems  to  have  been 
practised  in  part  of  the  southwest  and  in  the  extreme  southeast, 
but  in  the  region  between  records  as  to  its  occurrence  are  most 
exceptional. 

Plural  burial  of  uncremated  remains  seems,  so  far,  to  have  been 
recorded  from  Alabama  alone. 


details  of  this  alleged  Missouri  urn-burial,  taken  from  reports  furnished  by  Professor 
Swallow  ;  and  Conant  (Footprints  of  Vanished  Races  in  the  Mississippi  Valley}  speaks 
of  the  vessel  as  containing  "the  upper  portion  of  a  human  skull  and  one  vertebra."  In 
a  foot-note  in  the  Peabody  Museum  Report,  Professor  Putnam  says  the  vessel  contains 
"  a  few  fragments  of  a  human  cranium  and  the  vertebra  of  a  deer."  It  is  interesting  to 
note  the  evolution  of  this  Missouri  urn-burial.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Missouri  Academy 
of  Science,  held  in  1857  (Trans.  Missouri  Acad.  of  Set.,  St  Louis,  vol.  I,  1856-1860, 
p.  36)  Professor  Swallow  personally  describes  the  finding  of  the  urn-burial  "in  the 
upper  part  of  the  larger  mound.  ...  On  taking  it  up,  the  top  portion  of  a  human  skull 
was  seen  inside,  lying  across  the  mouth  of  the  jar,  with  the  convex  side  downward." 
The  diameter  of  the  jar  is  given  as  "about  ten  inches."  Sixteen  years  later  Professor 
Swallow  had  something  to  say  about  this  same  urn-burial  to  the  A.  A.  A.  S.  (Proceed 
ings  A.  A.  A.  S.,  No.  22,  B.  401,  1873).  The  fragment  has  become  a  skull.  Pro 
fessor  Swallow  says:  "The  mouth  of  the  jar  was  so  small  that  the  skull  could  not  be 
removed  whole.  This  skull  was  taken  out  in  the  presence  of  several  gentlemen  from  a 
depth  of  thirty  feet  below  the  undisturbed  surface  of  the  mound."  The  skull  is  contem 
poraneous  "  with  the  early  mound-builders,  the  elephant  and  the  mastodon."  It  lay 
near  the  "charred  remains  of  many  victims."  This  interesting  relic  which,  from  a 
fragment,  became  an  entire  skull,  which  came  from  both  the  top  and  the  bottom  of  a 
mound,  subsequently  was  broken,  along  with  the  enclosing  vessel,  by  accident  to  the  box 
in  which  it  was  packed,  we  are  told  by  the  Peabody  Museum  Report,  which,  as  has 
been  said,  got  its  information  from  Professor  Swallow.  The  vessel,  pieced  together, 
is  now  at  the  Peabody  Museum  and  contains  a  few  fragments  of  an  adult  skull  and  the 
vertebra  of  a  deer.  The  inside  measurements  of  the  vessel,  I  learn  from  Mr  Willoughby, 
are,  height  4^3  inches,  aperture  4^  inches,  maximum  diameter  6  inches. 

In  Professor  Starr's  carefully-prepared  "  Bibliography"  of  the  archeology  of  Iowa 
(Proc.  Davenport  Acad.  Nat.  Sci.,  vol.  VI,  pp.  19  and  55)  are  two  references.  One 
refers  to  the  Cedar  Rapids  Gazette,  Oct.  14,  1887,  in  which  is  described  work  by  Mr  B. 
Morgan  in  a  mound  near  Richland,  Keokuk  county,  Iowa,  where  "burial-urns,"  vessels 
nine  feet  in  circumference,  are  said  to  have  contained  human  bones.  The  other  refer 
ence,  when  looked  up,  shows  that  some  years  previous  to  the  newspaper  account,  in  an 
abstract  of  correspondence  from  Mr  Morgan,  describing  this  same  investigation  of  the 
mound  near  Richland,  which  appeared  in  the  Smithsonian  Institution  Report,  1880,  p. 
445,  no  mention  is  made  of  the  measurement  of  the  vessels  nor  of  their  having  been  used 
for  burial  purposes. 


669  AMERICAN  ANTHROPOLOGIST  [x.  s.,  6,  1904 

It  is  not  probable  that  urn-burial  was  practised  exclusively  in 
any  locality  within  the  United  States.  As  above  said,  I  have  never 
found  burials  in  urns  except  in  conjunction  with  other  forms  of 
burial,  and  I  have  been  able  to  learn  of  but  one  account  where  urn- 
burials  alone  are  said  to  have  been  met  with,  and  to  this  statement 
I  attach  but  little  importance.1 

Within  the  limit  of  a  paper  necessarily  so  brief  as  this,  space  is 
wanting  particularly  to  describe  the  enclosing  vessels  of  earthen 
ware  belonging  to  urn-burials.  Fortunately,  in  Professor  Holmes' 
exhaustive  memoir,  Aboriginal  Pottery  of  Eastern  United  States  ~  the 
matter  is  fully  discussed,  so  far  as  a  large  part  of  the  United  States 
is  concerned,  and  I  can  do  no  better  than  to  refer  the  reader  to  him. 


1  Squier  and  Davis,  op.  cit. ,  p.  167,  speak  of  a  cemetery,  devoted  to  urn-burial  only, 
on  St  Catharine's,  an  island  of  the  Georgia  coast.     I  have  conducted  field  work  on  St 
Catharine's  island  for  a  considerable  period  with  a  large  force  of  men,  and  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  neither  there  nor  on  any  island  of  the  Georgia  coast  did   I  meet  with  cemeteries 
of  the   class   described,  and   considering  the   loose  method  of  mound  work  and  of  the 
reports  on   it  that   prevailed   in  former  times,  one  may  well  discredit  this  case  cited  by 
Squier  and  Davis  on  the  authority  of  another. 

2  Twentieth  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.,  pp.  104-110  incl.,  130-136  inch  et  al.,  and 
numerous  plates.    For  Professor  Holmes  as  to  urn-burial,  see  pp.  37-39  incl.  of  the  same 
work,  reading  "  Florida  "  in  place  of  "  Georgia"  under  figure  II. 


> 

•: 
^ 
.. 
• 


[Reprinted  from  the  AMERICAN  ANTHROPOLOGIST,  Vol.  7,  No.  I,  Jan.-Mar.,  1905.] 


A  Form  of  Urn-burial  on  Mobile  Bay.  —  In  the  last  number  of  the 
American  Anthropologist  (October- December,  1904)  I  contributed  a 
paper,  "  Aboriginal  Urn-Burial  in  the  United  States."  In  this  paper  I 
pointed  out  that  the  occurrence  of  what  might  be  called  a  form  of  urn- 
burial,  namely,  the  placing  of  a  vessel  of  earthenware  inverted  over  a 
skull  with  which  the  rest  of  the  skeleton  was  present  had  not  been  re 
ported,  to  my  knowledge,  east  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico.  The  fact 
was  emphasized  that  the  form  of  urn-burial  in  question  should  not  be  con 
fused  with  that  obtaining  along  the  northwestern  Florida  coast  where  in 
verted  bowls  are  found  lying  over  isolated  skulls  or  skulls  with  a  few  scat 
tered,  accompanying  bones. 


1 68  AMERICAN  ANTHROPOLOGIST  [N.  s.,  7,  1905 

While  consulting  authorities  for  my  paper  I  came  upon  a  description1 
of  the  finding  of  an  urn -burial,  exact  particulars  not  given,  on  Simpson's 
island,  one  of  a  number  of  islands  to  the  north  of  Mobile  bay. 

Having  decided  to  make  certain  investigations  around  Mobile  bay,  I 
visited  Simpson's  island  in  January,  1905.  On  the  western,  or  Mobile 
river,  side  of  the  island,  about  three  miles  from  the  northern  end,  is  a 
cultivated  tract  on  which  are  several  frame  houses.  About  250  yards  in 
a  southerly  direction  from  the  houses  was  a  mound,  3  feet  in  height  and 
87  feet  across  its  circular  base,  made  of  a  mixture  of  tenacious  muck  and 
small  clam-shells  {Rangia  cuneata}.  As  the  owner  valued  the  mound  as 
a  place  of  refuge  for  stock  in  flood-time,  the  outer  part  of  the  mound, 
subject  to  wash,  was  not  touched  by  us  ;  but  the  central  part,  fifty  feet  in 
diameter,  was  dug  through  and  a  considerable  number  of  burials  of  types 
common  to  southern  mounds,  not  in  connection  with  urns,  were  en 
countered. 

There  was  one  exception.  In  the  northeastern  part  of  the  mound 
was  a  skeleton  of  an  adult,  the  head  directed  to  the  east.  The  skeleton 
lay  at  full  length  on  its  back,  with  the  head  turned  slightly  to  one  side. 
Inverted  over  the  skull,  and  completely  covering  it,  was  a  decorated,  im- 
perforate  vessel  of  earthenware,  maximum  diameter  11.75  inches,  height 
3.75  inches,  with  its  upturned  base  but  8  inches  from  the  surface. 

Here  we  have  a  burial,  as  far  east  as  Alabama,  similar  to  the  burials 
reported  from  Arizona  and  New  Mexico. 

Considering  the  interesting  urn-burials  found  on  Alabama  river  and 
those  of  the  northwestern  Florida  coast,  beginning  at  Perdido  bay,  the 
coast  boundary  between  Alabama  and  Florida,  which  is  but  a  few  miles 
distant  from  Mobile  bay,  one  might  look  for  records  of  the  finding  of 
urn -burials  on  Mobile  bay,  but  such  records  are  not  forthcoming,  and 
even  the  testimony  of  inhabitants  as  to  the  discovery  of  such  burials  seems 
to  be  wanting.  My  investigation,  which  included  the  circuit  of  the  bay, 
resulted  in  the  finding  of  no  urn-burial  of  any  sort  other  than  the  one 
described. 

In  a  mound  on  Tombigbee  river,  however,  sixty-five  miles  by  water 
above  Mobile,  at  Three  Rivers  Landing,  Washington  county,  Alabama, 
I  since  have  found  a  skeleton  having  on  the  skull,  part  of  which  it  covered 
like  a  cap,  an  inverted  vessel  six  and  one-half  inches  in  diameter. 

Fuller  description  of  the  archeological  work  on  Mobile  bay  and  on 
Tombigbee  river  will  appear  in  the  Journal  of  the  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences  of  Philadelphia.  CLARENCE  B.  MOORE. 


1  Smithsonian  Report,  1878,  p.  290. 


ADDITIONAL    URN-BURIALS. 


ADDITIONAL    URN-BURIALS. 


ADDITIONAL    URN-BURIALS. 


ADDITIONAL    URN-BURIALS. 


ADDITIONAL    URN-BURIALS. 


ADDITIONAL    URN-BURIALS. 


ADDITIONAL    URN-BURIALS. 


ADDITIONAL    URN-BURIALS. 


ADDITIONAL    URN-BURIALS. 


ADDITIONAL    URN-BURIALS. 


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